Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. –William Pitt

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Utah on verge of passing bill demanding Feds relinquish public land

Published March 06, 2012

SALT LAKE CITY – Lawmakers who want to seize control of federal lands are pushing a legal battle they insist is winnable despite multiple warnings their effort is highly unconstitutional and almost sure to fail in court.

Utah is poised to become the first state to pass a package of bills that demand the federal government relinquish claims to huge sections of public land. A proposal that advanced Wednesday demands that by 2014 the federal government cede control of nearly 30 million acres — nearly 50 percent of the entire state.

A bill setting an identical deadline is also moving in the Arizona Legislature.

Rep. Ken Ivory, who is leading the effort in Utah and helped draft model legislation for use in other states, said the federal government doesn’t treat states like equal partners in land management.

“If sovereignty means anything, it means not having to say pretty please, or mother may I,” Ivory said.

Driving the legislative frustration is an ongoing anger over missed opportunities to develop and mine lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service.

There is also concern that access to state-owned or private lands will be increasingly restricted by Congress or even with the stroke of a president’s pen, which happened in 1996 when President Bill Clinton created the 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah.

“In our area, we feel that we have federal land management policies that ignore the needs of state, county or local residents,” said Dirk Clayson, a commissioner in rural Kane County, Utah, which has less than 10 percent privately-owned land. “Even well-meant efforts from federal officials seem to get tied up with policy decisions … that are not responsive to local needs.”

While Clayson doesn’t think state control will solve all the issues, he said it would give the counties a more accessible partner.

“There’s risks, but there’s a general feeling that we will have a much more effective working relationship with the state,” Clayson said. “After all, they’re only a four-hour automobile drive away from us.”

Critics, however, argue the bills are almost all unconstitutional and amount to nothing more than chest-thumping political statements that waste taxpayer money. Even Utah’s legislative attorneys have warned the bills will likely not withstand a court challenge.

“This bill is likely unconstitutional and will engage us in a legal battle with the federal government,” Utah Senate Minority Leader Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said. “We’re likely to eventually lose in this endeavor … Simply inviting a lawsuit where we’ll be spending time and energy to lose is not the best policy.”

But the fight is worth it for many Western lawmakers because they see the potential for millions of dollars in revenue from taxes, development rights or even the sale of lands.

Pressing the federal government to resolve the issue politically or take it to court is the goal, said Utah state Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy.

“This is not a tanks, swords or horses issue,” Niederhauser said. “There is a peaceful way to do this.”

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We already lost it when she sat in it but I was hoping that we could recapture it but looks like that’s not going to happen.Angus King, former two term Independent Governor of Maine is going after her seat and in all likelihood will win it and he’s worse than she is, if that’s possible.

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Angus King enters race for U.S. Senate

BRUNSWICK, Maine — Former independent Gov. Angus King made his run for the U.S. Senate official Monday, branding his candidacy as one that will shake up the established parties in Washington and perhaps lead to the end of a gridlocked Congress he called “broken.”

“If you like the system as it is, I’m not your guy,” said King to a packed assembly in Bowdoin’s Moulton Union, where there were nearly as many people standing as there were sitting. “If you want a shot at changing it, join me.”

“It’s about politics and getting ready for the next election,” said King. “The best [Congress] could do was drive out an extraordinary woman from Maine.”

King said he knows that as a single member of the Senate, he can’t change Congress alone, but hoped Maine people would elect him and send a message to voters in other states that politically independent voices in Washington are the solution. He said problems can’t be fixed if the institutions in place to fix them are themselves broken.

“That doesn’t have to be the way it is. … I can be a broker for common sense. I can speak from the middle,” said King.

King said the problems facing the country are huge and daunting, ranging from the national debt to crumbling transportation and communications infrastructure. Some of the problems facing the country are felt more acutely here in Maine, said King, including a over-reliance on foreign oil.

“Everything we have … is built on the premise of fossil fuel,” said King, a long proponent of alternative energy sources, particularly wind power. “We still are trying to struggle along the same way and it’s going to kill us, particularly in Maine.”

King is not the first independent to enter the race, but he is by far the biggest name and his announcement Monday dramatically reshapes the race for whomever the Republican and Democratic nominee turns out to be.

“I have had several long conversations with Angus King during the past week, and I hope that he will run for the U.S. Senate,” Cutler said in a statement posted on Facebook. “He would bring to the Senate the independence, the abilities, the reputation and the disposition that will make him a great Senator, that will serve us Mainers well and make us proud every day, and that will begin to rebuild and restore the Senate to what it was intended to be, the world’s greatest deliberative body.

“I hope that each and every one of you will join me in encouraging Angus to run and that you will join me in supporting him if he decides to do so.”

Members of academia weighed in on what an independent senator would be able to accomplish in Congress.

“The logic of why King is announcing now is fascinating,” said L. Sandy Maisel, professor of government at Colby College.

But does that make King the front-runner?

“I think it depends on how it shakes out on the two party sides,” Maisel said. “With him in, it becomes a very difficult race for a Republican or Democrat.”

At the moment, the Senate field is crowded but likely will settle by March 15, the deadline for signatures collected by party candidates to be submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office.

On the Democrats’ side, the leading candidates are U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, who appears likely to forgo re-election to her U.S. House seat representing Maine’s 1st Congressional District; and two-term governor and former U.S. House member John Baldacci. Neither has announced definitively that they are in the race but both are gathering signatures.

Former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap and state Sen. Cynthia Dill, D-Portland, are in the race as well, although Dill plans to run for the House if Pingree leaves that race.

On the Republicans’ side, a number of candidates have started gathering signatures, including Secretary of State and former U.S. House candidate Charlie Summers, State Treasurer and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Bruce Poliquin, Maine Attorney General William Schneider, former state Senate President Rick Bennett, and Assistant Maine Senate Majority Leader Debra Plowman.

Scott D’Amboise also is in the race. He planned to challenge Snowe in the primary but has been largely overlooked by the GOP establishment.

While party candidates are scrambling to gather 2,000 signatures before the March 15 deadline, King has more time. Independents must gather 4,000 signatures to get on the ballot for a U.S. Senate race but they have until June.

Maisel said King’s entering the race hurts a Democratic candidate more than a Republican.

“If King’s not in and Pingree’s the [Democratic] nominee, she probably doesn’t lose,” he said. “A Republican could more easily win the seat with King in.”

A Public Policy Polling survey conducted over the weekend showed 62 percent of those polled thought favorably of King while 24 percent viewed him unfavorably. In a hypothetical three-way race among King, Summers and Pingree, King received 35 percent of Democratic votes, 25 percent of GOP votes and 53 percent of independent votes.

The full PPP poll on Maine’s now wide-open Senate race is expected to be released on Tuesday.

King, who turns 68 at the end of the month and was Maine’s governor from 1995 to 2003, is the oldest candidate to explore a run. In November 1994, he narrowly won a three-way race against Republican Susan Collins, now a U.S. senator, and Democrat Joe Brennan of Portland, who had already served two terms as Maine’s governor from 1979 to 1987.

In 1998, King won re-election with 59 percent of the vote. Republican Jim Longley Jr., son of former Maine governor Jim Longley, received 19 percent and Democrat Tom Connolly received 12 percent.

During his re-election, King won broad support from Democrats and Republicans who found him more favorable than the party candidates.

He is perhaps best known for the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, a then-unprecedented idea to provide middle school students in Maine with laptop computers. And of course, his independent politics.

“Nobody will be able to tell me how to vote except the people of Maine,” he said Monday night. “I think that’s the way it should be.”

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Maher Responds to Limbaugh: I Can Call Palin C-word Because ‘I Don’t Have Sponsors – I’m on HBO’

By Maher’s reasoning then I can pick up where Rush left off, I can call Sandra Fluke a whore and a slut or an opportunistic bitch. Since I don’t have sponsors let’s get really carried away.

For the record Ms. Fluke, you’re such an ignorant friggin ho that you don’t even know that every woman, poor or not, has access to free birth control, the first of which is, keep your legs crossed instead of letting it all hang out there for every horny slob that crosses your path. EVERY Health Department and EVERY Planned Parenthood has free birth control that taxpayers are already paying for. I wouldn’t have a problem with providing you, Ms. Fluke, with free birth control as long as it involves sterilization.

There’s a reason Bill Maher never married, he’s obviously a eunuch, he doesn’t have the balls to pick on men and call them nasty names. He’s also a misogynist probably due to his mother chastising him after catching him wearing her panties and bra. Instead of giving a million dollars to Obama for his sex change operation, why don’t you keep it for your own sex change, Bill. He is so jealous of women that he names off their body parts because he wishes he had those parts. I mean, really, have you ever seen anyone more gay than Bill Maher? Just think Ms. Fluke, if you hooked up with Maher you wouldn’t need birth control.